Golfing for Governorships

President Barack Obama played a round of golf over the weekend with President Bill Clinton, Ron Kirk, and Terry McAuliffe, Politicoreported:

The outing is Obama’s third time on the links since winning reelection. A September 2011 day at the links with the former president spurred the Obama-Clinton alliance that permeated throughout the 2012 election campaign.

McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton friend, just last month launched his own campaign for governor of Virginia.

McAuliffe became involved in national politics in 1980 and is known as a "fund-raiser extraordinaire for the Democratic Party," according to the New York Times. He campaigned for the same gubernatorial nomination in 2009, but lost "in an unusually contentious, [and] expensive" primary.

He published What a Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals in 2007.

The former Democratic National Committee chairman has spent the past week accruing Democratic supporters for his campaign, and the recent golf outing seems to suggest the president’s support is not far behind.

While this would be good news for McAuliffe, it would be a major blow for Tom Perriello, should he join the Virginia governor’s race. Perriello is said to be a possible Democratic challenger to McAuliffe. According to Talking Points Memo:

Sources close to former Rep. Tom Perriello, the progressive star now at the Center For American Progress, confirm he’s thinking about running — but so far the preliminary discussions have remained just that.

Obama supported Perriello’s bid for reelection two years ago, calling him "one of the best congressmen Virginia's ever had." Perriello lost his seat in the House of Representatives to Republican Robert Hurt.

It is unclear which has more horsepower: the golf carts ridden by the foursome on the links or McAuliffe’s new car.